Padres defeat Marlins in series-opening win

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Jul 21, 2025

Published in Baseball

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MIAMI — Jackson Merrill blew through a stop sign, and it mattered because the bullpen again made a slim lead stand up.

The San Diego Padres beat the Miami Marlins 2-1 on Monday night and got to five games over .500 for the first time since June 10.

They did it by scoring twice in the second inning and turning the game over to their back end relievers starting in the fifth.

There was a one-run lead for Robert Suarez, Jason Adam, Jeremiah Estrada and Adrian Morejón to protect because Merrill decided not to stop on his way home in the second inning.

The Padres were facing 6-foot-8 Eury Pérez for the first time, and they scored twice as many runs against him than the previous three teams he faced combined.

The 22-year-old right-hander with the 98 mph fastball entered Monday’s game having gotten the win in all three of his starts in July, allowing one run in 18 innings in those games. He was 5-2 with a 3.18 ERA in seven starts this season after missing all of 2024 following Tommy John surgery.

The Padres hit Pérez hard with mostly nothing to show for it in the first inning before taking a 2-0 lead in the second.

Xander Bogaerts led off the inning by turning around a first-pitch fastball and sending it a projected 393 feet and off the wall in right-center field for a double.

He moved to third on a wild pitch while Merrill was up and scored on a single Merrill laced into right field.

Merrill was still at first base when, with two outs, Martín Maldonado lined a double just inside the left-field line that rolled into the corner.

Left fielder Kyle Stowers got to the ball and got off a good throw, and Leiper held up his hands to signal Merril should hold. But Merrill never slowed and slid in headfirst ahead of a relay throw from shortstop Otto Lopez that bounced past catcher Augustín Ramírez.

The Marlins threatened against Padres starter Randy Vásquez in the third inning after a single and a walk with one out when Ramírez scorched a 115 mph line drive toward Machado, who fell to his knees as he lunged to the left and threw to Jose Iglesias covering second to end the inning.

There was no threat when they halved the Padres’ lead in the fourth. There was just a 400-foot home run by Stowers, the El Cajon native and Christian High School alumnus who was a first-time All-Star last week and came into the game with a 1.358 OPS and 11 homers over his previous 23 games.

Vásquez, who held the Marlins to three runs in 6⅓ innings on May 26, would not qualify for the win Monday.

He left a 2-1 lead to Adrian Morejón with one out and one on in the fifth.

Morejón retired all five batters he faced, stranding that runner at second in the fifth and getting through the sixth.

Estrada followed with a perfect seventh. A double-play grounder got Adam out of the eighth after a lead-off walk. Suarez closed his MLB-leading 29th save after a two-out single.

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